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June, 2019, I applied for UK visit visa and my visa was refused. The reasons doc is attached below,

  • Point 1: They can see I have salary deposit but ask for inter bank transfers detail. I have friends and family who borrow and return money and we don't have any documents for that. However, before my last salary transaction, my account balance was around 200k (around GBP 1000). They are asking for deposits details but not looking at withdrawal. More than 70% of that money is spent. Does this comes under fund parking?

  • Point 2: I have GBP 4400 account balance, and why can't I spent GBP 2000 on a trip? I am fully capable of spending that much and supporting my family considering my monthly salary.

  • Point 3: Attached property papers, bought a brand new car of worth (GBP 20,000) from the bank and paid 50% deposit, attached its instalment plan & details. Attached my marriage certificate and family registration certificate.

I have travelled half of the europe and have two Schangen visas on my passport. Have been to Turkey and Dubai as well. And this travel history is of past 2 years.

TBH their refusal reasons are insulting. I read an an article on Independent UK the other day that UKVI have an algorithm that marks each applications considering their race, religion and country etc.

Looking forward to experts thoughts on this. Thank you!

UKVI refusal reasons

Refusal points

Anonymous Traveler
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  • The algorithm to evaluate applications may refer to a risk assessment tool, which is a perfectly normal mechanism used in many areas of business. This question has a great example that shows how it probably works https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/49478/schengen-visa-refused-from-german-embassy In your case, the country risk rating is probably high, for example – Traveller Jul 05 '19 at 08:18
  • @ReddHerring, funny thing is - almost every UK visit visa refusal is duplicate of V4.2 a+c ;) – Anonymous Traveler Jul 05 '19 at 09:08
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    @AnonymousTraveler Yes, because people consistently disregard the guidance, or believe that for some reason it doesn't apply to them. –  Jul 05 '19 at 09:11
  • @Reddherring - and another reason is, Home office generate revenue from that as well. :D Even in my refusal letter, they wrote wrong Bank Name. I had bank statement from a different bank. – Anonymous Traveler Jul 05 '19 at 09:14

1 Answers1

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To answer the immediate question, an appeal is not an option for a standard visitor visa (as stated in your refusal notice), and judicial review requires qualified legal advice that you're not going to get for free on an internet forum. So reapplying sometime later is probably your most realistic option.

I'd encourage you to read Should I submit bank statements when applying for a UK Visa? What do they say about me? in detail. Consider your application from their perspective: you have less than two month's wages in the bank, you have large additional deposits coming into your account from who knows where, and you propose to spend half of your savings on a trip to the UK. That makes you look rather eager to get into the UK, which raises their concern you may be intended to overstay.

You see someone fully capable of affording your trip, and I don't doubt that you are, but what they see is someone who just had less than two week's wages in the bank, suddenly received nearly two month's wages from various unidentified sources, and decided it was time for a vacation to the UK.

You can present a stronger application if you wait some time until you can show a clean set of bank statements—without a lot of unexplained large transactions—that show a history of savings so that the cost of your trip is a much smaller portion of your balance.

Zach Lipton
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  • Thank you. Hmm can you give a rough idea, how much does JR costs? :) However, my bank statement wasn't like you thought it is. I had 6 months of salary record and the the transactions from unidentified source is not just one transactions. For example, if I transferred someone £1000, they transferred back that amount after couple of month. And largest unidentified transaction is not more than £800. And these transactions date back 2 - 3 months before applications. They happened all in different months / weeks. What are you thoughts about point 3? Thanks again! – Anonymous Traveler Jul 05 '19 at 05:55
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    @Anonymous Traveler I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic but, as an ex bank employee, the way you operate your account raises some red flags around potential money laundering (not funds parking), which will I imagine have prompted UKVI’s interest in seeing inter bank transfer details. On point 3, if you paid 50% of the car purchase price from income, do your bank statements demonstrate that? It’s not what you want to hear but your case is really nothing special, there are many similar cases on TSE. – Traveller Jul 05 '19 at 06:56
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    @AnonymousTraveler I suspect you're joking about JR, but just to set your mind at rest, any time you go near the high court expect a budget on the order of £10,000. – MadHatter Jul 05 '19 at 07:28
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    If you can explain the additional transfers, then do so, even if documentation is limited. No explanation at all makes them doubt you genuinely have access to these funds.

    But you have a bigger problem - the ECO simply doesn't find it believable enough that a person would spend a years salary, and half their life savings on a short holiday. They think that there is a reasonable chance you are only spending so much because you intend to make that money back - through working in the UK. As many people from Pakistan do this, the risk is seen as too high - even if you probably won't.

     – CMaster Jul 05 '19 at 08:23
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    @AnonymousTraveler Judicial review isn't appropriate for "Darnit, I disagree with the decision." It's for cases where you believe that something is seriously and potentially systemically wrong. – David Richerby Jul 05 '19 at 08:42
  • @CMaster He's only proposing to spend 80% of one month's wages on the trip: estimated cost of £2000 compared to monthly income of £2500. There's no mention of "life savings". – David Richerby Jul 05 '19 at 08:43
  • @DavidRicherbyoops, I read the £2500 as annual, rather than monthly. In that case, it seems pretty reasonable really. – CMaster Jul 05 '19 at 08:49
  • @Traveller, I see - so there are many cases like mine but none action taken against conclusions. UK visa requirements are so vague, another way for them to make money. Thanks for your comment though. I'll be careful next time, perhaps use a different bank account for such kind of transactions. – Anonymous Traveler Jul 05 '19 at 09:04
  • @MadHatter, I just wanted to get an idea and yeah JR is out of equation. Visa doesn't worth £10,000 haha! – Anonymous Traveler Jul 05 '19 at 09:05
  • @CMaster - you are right about "As many people from Pakistan do this, the risk is seen as too high" but I make more in Pakistan than average UK's monthly salary. And they think that £4400 is not enough for my trip. :) Point 2 and 3 are just discrimination I'd say. – Anonymous Traveler Jul 05 '19 at 09:13
  • Calling it discrimination doesn't really help anybody. They have the right to refuse your application for any reason they see fit, and remember they see a lot of applications and hear a lot about what people do (and some people will do a lot to get into the UK to live). So accept the decision and address the issues in your next application. – Henrik supports the community Jul 05 '19 at 11:58